- UK: Reeves plans to give regional regimes a share of national tax revenues
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Rachel Reeves has announced that the Treasury will draw up plans to give regional leaders a share of national tax revenues as part of a radical plan to rebalance the economy of England. Setting out her intention of creating ‘investment-led growth,’ the chancellor promised ‘a genuine break with the past’ that would shift spending power away from Westminster. … Reeves set out plans to reform regulation to ‘shift the balance of power towards workers, consumers, bill-payers and renters.’ Her lecture was titled The Active and Strategic State, and restated the approach she calls ‘securonomics.'” (03/17/26)
- Top Gabbard aide resigns over Iran war
Source: The Hill
“A top aide to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has resigned in protest of the Trump administration’s war in Iran. Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, posted on social media platform X that he was resigning effective Tuesday. He appears to be the first major Trump administration official to resign over the war. ‘I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,’ Kent wrote. Kent shared a letter addressed to President Trump stating that while he supports ‘the values and the foreign policies that you campaigned on in 2016, 2020’ and 2024, he disagreed with the president’s decision to launch the Iran operation.” (03/17/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5787478-trump-aide-joe-kent-resigns-iran-war
- US warship believed to be carrying Marine ground troops to Middle East tracked off Singapore
Source: CNN
“A US Navy warship believed to be carrying thousands of Marines and sailors to the Middle East is nearing the Malacca Strait off Singapore as it makes its way to the region, maritime tracking data showed Tuesday. The amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli was approaching Singapore, at the southwestern edge of the South China Sea, Tuesday morning, according to AIS tracking data seen by CNN. US Navy ships often move with AIS transponders turned off. Revealing their positions while transiting areas with heavy maritime traffic, like the waters around Singapore, enables safer operations. The Tripoli is believed to be carrying troops from the Okinawa-based 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), a rapid-response force of 2,200 personnel, after the Pentagon ordered the unit to deploy, according to three officials familiar with the plans.” (03/17/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/17/middleeast/uss-tripoli-marines-middle-east-iran-intl
- White House Seeks Fertilizer from Venezuela, Morocco to make up shortages caused by Trump’s Iran fiasco
Source: US News & World Report
“The Trump administration is seeking other sources of fertilizer amid the ongoing Iran war’s shipping constraints, including from Venezuela and possibly Morocco, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Tuesday. … Fertilizer supplies have shrunk as the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran cut off critical nitrogen fertilizer supplies from the Gulf to the world’s farmers, sending prices spiking by more than one-third in recent weeks.” (03/17/26)
- Amazon rolls out 1-hour, 3-hour delivery as ultrafast shipping trend grows in the US
Source: CNBC
“Amazon said Tuesday it’s starting one-hour and three-hour deliveries in parts of the U.S., as the company continues to look for ways to satisfy impatient consumers. The company said three-hour delivery is available in about 2,000 cities and towns in the U.S., while one-hour delivery is available in hundreds of those areas. … More than 90,000 products are eligible for delivery in three hours or less, including pantry items, cleaning supplies, over-the-counter medications, clothing and toys. Amazon said it expects to bring the service, which started via small-scale tests late last year, to more areas of the country in the coming months.” (03/17/26)
- Judge blocks RFK Jr’s changes to US childhood vaccine schedule
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A federal judge on Monday blocked the US government from making sweeping changes to childhood immunisations, in a blow to Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s agenda. Since taking office a year ago, Kennedy has sought to change and loosen vaccine regulations, including slashing the number of recommended shots for children from 17 to 11. The American Academy of Pediatrics and other large medical groups had sued, saying Kennedy’s changes violated federal law. Judge Brian Murphy also suspended Kennedy’s appointments to an advisory vaccine panel, many of whom were vaccine-sceptics. Kennedy was a longtime antivaccine activist before joining President Donald Trump’s administration. The ruling means a scheduled Wednesday meeting for the vaccine panel, called the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be postponed, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).” [editor’s note: Ince again the Pharma minions gather to block sanity – SAT] (03/17/26)
- SpaceX reaches 10,000 simultaneous Starlink satellites in orbit following Falcon 9 launch from California
Source: Spaceflight Now
“SpaceX crossed the threshold of having more than 10,000 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit simultaneously for the first time. The milestone comes less than seven years after launching its first batch of satellites in May 2019. Coincidently, the Monday night launch also coincided with the 100th anniversary of Robert Goddard’s launch of the first liquid-propelled rocket, which was fueled by gasoline. A century later, SpaceX’s Monday night launch of a Falcon 9 rocket was the 615th flight of this kerosene-fueled rocket. Liftoff of the mission that put SpaceX over the 10,000-satellite threshold, dubbed Starlink Group 17-24, happened at 10:19:09 p.m. PDT (1:19:09 a.m. EDT / 0619:09 UTC on Tuesday, Mar. 17).” (03/17/26)
- Iran War: We Have Met the Enemy, and He is U.S.
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“I doubt the Iranian regime WANTED the US and Israeli regimes to escalate the region’s long-standing tension, constant low-intensity fighting, and occasional flare-ups to full-on war for the second time in less than a year … but now that it’s happened, the Iranians seem intent on extracting a real price for the blunder instead of negotiating another lull or, as some keep putting it, giving Donald Trump an excuse to ‘declare victory’ and take an ‘off-ramp’ back to the status quo ante. Can you blame them? … Getting out won’t be quite so smart and easy. We’re seeing.” (03/17/26)
- Why We Have to Fight Back Against ICE Protesters’ Terror Convictions
Source: The Intercept
by Natasha LennardEven in conservative Texas, I didn’t think a jury would buy the government’s case that these defendants were ‘North Texas Antifa Cell operatives’ — an organization fabricated whole cloth by the Trump administration — who had orchestrated an elaborate ambush of the ICE facility. Last week, a jury found eight of the defendants guilty of terrorism charges for simply being present and wearing black at the protest. The government scored a resounding victory: A few of the protesters, none of whom had fired any weapons, were acquitted of attempted murder charges, but the Justice Department won on almost all the other charges. … If that can be sold to juries as the work of an organized terrorist cell, deserving of up to 15 years in prison, then Trump’s fantasy of rounding up and imprisoning leftists en masse becomes a reality.” (03/17/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/17/ice-protester-terrorism-convictions-trump-prairieland/
- Libertarianism’s Moral Lessons
Source: Law & Liberty
by Julia R Cartwright“What distinguishes [Leonard] Read from many contemporary libertarians is his insistence that liberty is not merely an efficient social or political technology but a moral imperative. This is exemplified in his reflections on security and dependence. ‘True security is an outgrowth of freedom, not an alternative to it,’ he writes in an essay on the welfare state, warning that being made dependent on political favor is ‘a move away from true security.’ In other words, security does not come from concentrating power in benevolent hands but from preserving the conditions under which individuals bear responsibility for their own choices.” (03/17/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/libertarianisms-moral-lessons/
- Censoring Iran war news sets a dangerous precedent
Source: Expression
by Aaron Terr“The law is clear that the First Amendment bars the government from dictating news coverage or punishing outlets for publishing what the president claims is ‘false.’ The American people are entitled to uncensored news about what their government and military are doing. No matter who occupies the White House, war does not justify the government erecting barriers between the people and the press. To the contrary, the life-and-death stakes of war make public scrutiny and accountability more important than ever. … The law is also clear that broadcast licensees which operate under the public interest standard are shielded from [Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan] Carr’s threats.” (03/17/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/censoring-iran-war-news-sets-a-dangerous
- Trump’s War Psychology
Source: The Bulwark
by Mona Charen“Two weeks after the start of the war in Iran, the picture is coming into focus. Why would a president who promised countless times not to start new wars, particularly ‘forever wars’ in the Middle East, have leapt into this conflict? As always in the age of Trump, it’s necessary to separate the president’s motives and mindset from the old ways we used to decide questions of war and peace, tariffs, sanctions, immigration, taxes, and other matters. Before venturing into Trump’s mind, let’s consider the shape of the discussion. People who imagine that we are still operating in a normal world are making arguments in favor of military action as if we were engaged in a national debate.” (03/17/26)
- Racial Genetics Is Trump’s Defining Worldview
Source: TomDispatch
by Clarence Lusane“Jeffrey Epstein was not only a rapist and a child predator, but also — wait for it — a White supremacist. While some speculate that the Epstein issue is just a distraction from President Trump’s virulent and endless racism, others feel that the video the president posted at the beginning of Black History Month of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes was meant to divert attention from the growing Epstein fallout. Well, as it turns out, the two crises are not as far apart as you might imagine. Bombshell articles in The Atlantic, Mother Jones, and at MS Now pulled the covers off Jeffrey Epstein’s noxious racism.” [editor’s note: I will leave it to the reader to decipher this mess of lies and context drops – SAT] [additional editor’s note: Probably a good idea, SAT … I suspect they’ll do a better job than your note indicates you did – TLK] (03/17/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/donald-trumps-racism-mirrors-jeffrey-epsteins/
- Warriors’ Casino: The People Making A Killing Gambling On War
Source: Racket News
by Ryan Lovelace“Bettors traded more than $529 million in forecasts of when the U.S. would next strike Iran in a market opened last year on Polymarket, the self-described world’s largest prediction market. Bets on Polymarket are made with cryptocurrency, and each trade is countered by another user, so not exactly versus ‘the house.’ By contrast, $133.8 million was bet on last month’s Super Bowl across Nevada’s 186 sportsbooks, representing a 10-year low, according to data from the Nevada Gaming Control Board. … But betting big on war is not exactly a new phenomenon and the outcomes are far from guaranteed, as America’s enemies found out the hard way 250 years ago. Over drinks at Brooke’s in London on Christmas Day, 1776, legend has it British Gen. John Burgoyne bet a colleague 50 guineas he would return by the following Christmas having squashed the American patriots’ rebellion.” (03/17/26)
- The Disappearing Off-Ramp in Iran
Source: The Atlantic
by Thomas Wright“The window for Donald Trump to end the Iran war by simply declaring victory and walking away is rapidly closing. Soon he will face a stark choice: He can take greater risks in pursuit of a decisive tactical success, prepare the country for a prolonged conflict that could last for many months, or seek a negotiated settlement that involves a real compromise with Tehran.” (03/17/26)
- The Israel Lobby’s Responsibility for the Iran War
Source: Foreign Policy
by Stephen M Walt“This war did not come out of nowhere. To be sure, the United States and Iran have been at odds for decades, and neither Israel nor the lobby is solely responsible for the suspicion with which each country views the other. Nonetheless, lobby groups such as AIPAC, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Zionist Organization of America, and United Against Nuclear Iran have worked to demonize Iran over the years, prevent U.S. companies from doing business there, and derail prior attempts by former Iranian presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammed Khatami to improve relations. … by making it almost impossible for either Democratic or Republican presidents to put meaningful pressure on Israel, the lobby has enabled Netanyahu to engage in ‘reckless driving’ all over the region, whether in Israel’s sustained efforts to oppress its Palestinian subjects or in its repeated attacks on Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran, and even Qatar.” (03/17/26)
- This Is What It Looks Like When You Give Zionists Everything They Want
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“This is Zionism put into practice. The wars. The massacres. The bombed-out schools and hospitals. The millions of displaced individuals. The invasion of Lebanon. The explosions carpeting Tehran. The hollowed-out moonscape of Gaza. The horrific pogroms in the West Bank. The child amputees. The smell of rotting corpses. The assassinated doctors and journalists. The blackened sky and the poisoned water. The nonstop deluge of brain-melting propaganda. The aggressive promotion of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism. The erosion of free speech rights throughout the western world. The corrupt warmongering politicians. The legions of online hasbara trolls. The soaring fuel prices. Money which could pay for social services buying bombs for Israel instead. All the death, destruction, instability and suffering that’s being visited upon countless civilians throughout west Asia. This is Zionism.” (03/17/26)
- Monaco’s Unlikely Savior
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes“At a time when gambling is increasingly treated by governments as a vice to be regulated or restricted, it is worth recalling a curious episode in European economic history: a casino once saved a country. In the 19th century, Monaco went from being a virtually bankrupt state to the playground of millionaires that we know today.” (03/17/26)
- The Ghost of 1938 — The Russian Threat
Source: Project Liberal
by Oliver Gale“Why democracies must confront Russian hybrid warfare and the return of fascism to Europe.” [editor’s note: Fake “liberals” might want to keep the McCarthyism at least a little hidden until they actually have power – TLK] (03/17/26)
https://projectliberal.substack.com/p/the-ghost-of-1938-the-russian-threat
- The Iran War’s Terrible Effects
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison“The Iran war is a regional war in a way that previous reckless U.S. interventions were not, and it is having global effects. The Iran war is already wider and more damaging to international peace and security in its first three weeks than the Iraq war was in its early years. If it is allowed to continue for several more months, the damage to regional security will be severe. The damage to the interests of many of our treaty allies will also be significant, and the entire global economy will suffer. This was an entirely avoidable disaster, and the U.S. and Israel are responsible for causing it.” (03/17/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/the-iran-wars-terrible-effects
- What If Iranians Don’t Want to Be “Free”?
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter“I’m not one of those people tapping their foot saying, ‘When is the war going to end? It’s been dragging on and is a disaster!’ No, those people are idiots actively hoping the United States is damaged because of who the President of the United States is. Nor do I think the Iranian regime didn’t deserve to be wiped out; those who used to be in charge (and alive) were evil and them no longer existing is a great thing for humanity. But what comes next isn’t up to us, it’s up to the people of Iran to act. And there is still an open question about what it is they want, so we have to consider the possibility that most of them simply don’t want to be ‘free.'” (03/17/26)
- Hegseth has no place as the voice of American war
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jon Duffy“In describing the U.S. war in Iran, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth often sounds less like a leader burdened by the grave public trust of killing in the nation’s name than like a man performing for an audience. On ’60 Minutes,’ he said ‘the only ones that need to be worried right now are Iranians that think they’re gonna live.’ Days earlier, Hegseth described the torpedoing of an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka — an attack that killed more than 80 sailors — as ‘quiet death,’ with a relish that has no place in the public voice of American war. Some will hear lines like that and dismiss them as swagger from a man temperamentally unsuited to his office. The deeper problem is the view of war those lines reveal. … Hegseth does not speak of war as responsibility, burden or tragedy. He speaks of it as a stage for display.” (03/17/26)
- The Long Shadow of COVID School Closures
Source: The Daily Economy
by Jeffery L Degner“COVID lockdowns transformed education and exposed the limits of centralized policymaking. Six years later, students are still paying the price.” (03/17/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-long-shadow-of-covid-school-closures/
- Trump Risks It All on Regime Change Abroad
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Galen Carpenter“It is supremely ironic that President Donald Trump, who in 2016 gained a reputation as a staunch opponent of regime-change wars, is 10 years later placing a huge political bet on achieving success with multiple U.S. crusades of that nature. He has already launched regime-change military campaigns against Venezuela and Iran. Some comments by Trump indicate that he is contemplating a campaign to oust the entrenched communist regime in Cuba. It’s a massive gamble for the president and the Republican Party. If Trump can carry off the strategy, and pro-U.S. successor governments replace repressive and hostile systems in all three countries, his historical legacy would be impressive in the eyes of many. … A failure to achieve such transformational outcomes at low cost in American blood and treasure, though, would likely prove politically disastrous for Trump and his supporters. The early indicators are not especially encouraging for the administration’s strategy.” (03/17/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-risks-it-all-on-regime-change-abroad/
- Trump Can’t Blockade Love: Why I’m Going to Cuba
Source: Common Dreams
by Leonardo Flores“I’m traveling to Cuba for the first time on March 21 to be in Havana with the Nuestra América Convoy, in which people from dozens of countries representing a variety of organizations will break the blockade, bringing much-needed supplies to the island. CODEPINK is bringing 6,300 pounds of medical equipment and medicine with help from Global Health Partners and others. These supplies will be given to clinics, hospitals, and maternity centers as Cuba deals with the latest horrifying crime against humanity perpetrated by the United States. The US is blockading oil, seizing and chasing away Cuba-bound tankers in the Caribbean. No oil whatsoever has entered the island since early December. Trump characterized Cuba as an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat,’ paving the way for more unilateral coercive measures (so-called sanctions).” (03/17/26)
- Crypto, AI, and AIPAC Are Corrupting Democratic Primaries
Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher“Whatever happens in Illinois and elsewhere this primary season, the risks to democracy are clear. In multi-candidate primaries that can be won by small pluralities, special interest groups can misrepresent themselves, spend lavishly, and watch their preferred candidates, who are not representative of their party’s voters, eke out narrow wins. That could not only damage a party’s short-term prospects but also threaten its integrity in the long term.” (03/17/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/03/17/crypto-aipac-corrupting-democratic-primaries/
- Paul Ehrlich Was Wrong About Everything
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson“At what point must we be frank about the fact that Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb author who died last week at the age of 93, was not simply wrong about almost everything he ever wrote or said or thought, but positively and culpably dishonest? If ever there were an intellectual grave that deserves pissing on posthaste, it is Paul Ehrlich’s. So let us commence. Ehrlich was an intellectual fraud, something he had in common with many of the celebrated pseudoscientists, quacks, and cranks who became intellectual heroes to our era’s progressives, from Sigmund Freud to Noam Chomsky, Rachel Carson, Margaret Sanger, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. until about five minutes ago. (Right-wingers don’t go around reading books by crackpots — they put them into the Cabinet.)” (03/17/26)
- Amend and Reform the Pardon Clause of the Constitution in 2027
Source: Liberal Currents
by Dennis Lytton“Trump’s use of the constitution’s plenary grant of pardon authority to him — from all the J6’ers, to his cronies and friends, to implicit promises to administration thugs high and low — has been without precedent in scale to be sure. But the history of the pardon clause has always been fraught. Increasingly in the last few generations its abuses — from Clinton’s Marc Rich to Bush’s Iran Contra plotters — have become prominent. Amendments may require Republican members of Congress to get on board, but they do not require the president. Pardon reform, especially if it does not have a particular partisan valence, could be a low hanging fruit for the 120th Congress to address through that mechanism.” (03/17/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/amend-and-reform-the-pardon-clause-of-the-constitution-in-2027/
- A Theory About the Estrangement Crisis
Source: Persuasion
by Leonora Barclay“Don’t helicopter parent your kids. It may cause them to make a dramatic break later in life.” (03/17/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/a-theory-about-the-estrangement-crisis
- Incorrigible Rudeness, The Strategy For Social-Political Impotence
Source: Isonomia Quarterly
by Paul Poenicke“Equality under the law and global federalism — two of Hayek’s most cogent ideals — are consequential from numerous perspectives and justified by many strong arguments. A dozen phrases pass through the mind — ‘The best arguments persuade,’ ‘The truth will out,’ ‘Survival of the fittest beliefs,’ ‘Truth emerges from the marketplace of ideas’ — to accost reality. Unfortunately, society is not a truth table, where the input of truth entails the output of further truths. Truth tables are constructs of logic, and reality is not beholden to the results of formal logic and its apparatuses.” (03/17/26)
https://isonomiamag.substack.com/p/incorrigible-rudeness-the-strategy
- Trump Watch, 03/17/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Iran Closes the Strait of Hormuz.” (03/17/26)
- Cato Daily Podcast, 03/17/26
Source: Cato Institute
“Who’s Watching the $170 Billion?” (03/17/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/whos-watching-the-170-billion
- Max Rangeley & Steve Baker Lecture
Source: Cobden Centre
“Are We in the Largest Bubble in History?” (03/17/26)
- Advisory Opinions, 03/17/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Judge Gets Vulgar in Transgender Spa Case.” (03/17/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/judge-gets-vulgar-in-transgender-spa-case/
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 03/17/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“‘Empire Of Lies,’ With Guest Charles Goyette.” (03/17/26)
- The Daily Beast Podcast, 03/17/26
Source: The Daily Beast
“I Know How Epstein Groomed America’s Corrupt Elite.” (03/17/26)
- Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast, episode 79
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Iran, Salvo Competition and the Inevitable Stalemate.” (03/17/26)
- Law & Liberty Podcast, 03/17/26
Source: Law & Liberty
“Law & Liberty senior writer John O. McGinnis joins the podcast this week to discuss his new book, Why Democracy Needs the Rich.” (03/17/26)
- Rising, 03/17/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on Paul Ehrlich, the famous environmentalist who passed away last like [sic], and who was known for his predictions about the Earth becoming over-populated.” (03/17/26)
- SolutionsWatch, 03/17/26
Source: The Corbett Report
“James talks to John C. A. Manley about the writers who inspired his own resistance fiction and the line between resistance fiction and predictive programming.” (03/17/26)
https://corbettreport.com/resistance-fiction-solutionswatch/